Recent Posts

About

Can anything halt the market's bull run? Stocks shrugged off a heavy slate of mixed earnings and economic data -- in addition to the turmoil in Egypt -- to rally nearly 3% last week. Traders had ample opportunity to take some profits -- and yet the market kept rising. With a much quieter week on tap and a key technical hurdle overcome, stocks could very well extend their gains in the sessions ahead.

The major averages have put up gains in excess of 20% since Sept. 1 with nary a hiccup. True, sentiment remains robustly bullish -- a contrarian indicator -- and the market is overbought, but the S&P 500 closed above 1,310 on Friday. By broaching that level of technical resistance, stocks could see more upside ahead, says Ben Willis, director of floor operations at Sunrise Securities.

Certainly, a lighter calendar of earnings and economic events will afford traders fewer opportunities to make knee-jerk trades, says Alan Valdez, director of trading operations at DME Securities. Although Dow components Walt Disney (DIS), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Kraft Foods (KFT) and Coca-Cola (KO) will report earnings this week, if recent history is any guide, that should only bolster investor confidence. More than 300 companies in the S&P 500 have posted earnings so far, according to data from Thomson Reuters, and 72% have exceeded Wall Street forecasts.

As for econ data, it's a relatively quiet week, says Valdez. We'll get the monthly trade-balance report, a reading on consumer sentiment and another speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Big deal.

If anything can upset the market this week, it's likely to be the situation in Egypt, especially if its spreads to the wider region, the veteran New York Stock Exchange (NYX) trader says. For more on Valdez's view from the floor of the NYSE, see the video above.

7 Comments

MARKET STILL RISEING?? WE have NO JOBS?? GREEDY CORPS make money over seas since NAFTA!! Thats what is driving the market up. We BAIL them OUT and they make money while we THE TAX PAYER STARVE. Won't be long before this country will be telling OBAMA and his CHICAGO THUGS to "STEO DOWN""!! Wonnder what OBAMA would do?? He is asking EGYPTS leader to step down, what's the diffrence?? He is doing a worst job than EGYPTS leader!! Lets get OUT of THEUN and take care of our own FIRST, they can have the scrapes!

Positive and happy economic news after so much bad news the last few years is a really beautiful thing. I clearly recall on Decemeber 1st, 2010 the huge amount of foreclosures that there were and that the umeployement figures were on the upswing. I recall this being at the same time i saw pictures of 19 christmas Trees being lit in the great old White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. Low and behold, January 1st 2011 came around and all of a sudden, unemployment is way down, the recession is over, car loans are robust and steak and lobster is being served at a state dinner for China. The fact is, this country is in a depression and the media is covering it up and filling the tank with propaganda and malarkey. A bad economy simply does not turn around within a few weeks as it is now being portrayed and anyone with any sense of reality and living in the real world can vouch for this. Bankers and Wall street Tycoons do not live in reality now nor ever.